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A sequence is a series of emails that DealToaster sends from one mailbox, one step at a time, to each contact you add. This page shows how to build one and check it before you launch.

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The parts of a sequence

Open Sequences and select a sequence. It has four tabs:
  • Overview: its status, numbers and the contacts in it.
  • Steps: the emails and conditions you write.
  • Settings: its name, mailbox, sending window and stopping rules.
  • Preview: how each email looks to a real contact.

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Create a sequence

Select Start from a template for three ready-made emails in one thread: an intro, a follow-up 2 days later and a short break-up 4 days after that. Make them yours before you launch. Or select New sequence, enter a Name, choose the Mailbox it sends from and select Create sequence. The sending window and working days start as the mailbox’s; you can change them in the sequence settings. You can leave the mailbox as No mailbox yet and write the steps first, but you need a mailbox to launch.

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Write the steps

On Steps, the emails are cards on a canvas. Each shows its name (“Step 1”, “Step 2”) and “Day N”, which counts the delays on its path (1 plus the whole days of the waits before it). Select a card to edit it in the side panel:
  • Subject and Email hold the text. Use variables to personalize them; see The template language for the full syntax.
  • Wait sets the delay after the previous email, in days or hours. A delay can be up to 60 days. Step 1 has no delay: it goes out first, in the sending window, after a contact is added.
  • Insert variable adds a variable at the cursor. Fill in Fallback when empty so the email never goes out with a gap: without a fallback, a contact whose value is empty for step 1 is not added (Add contacts reports “Missing data for step 1”), and for a later step the contact is set aside as Needs attention. Date variables and helpers are never empty.
  • Select Save step for a new email or Save changes for an existing one. The editor keeps your unsaved edits when you switch between the tabs, and asks before you leave the sequence with unsaved edits.
To add an email, select a + on a connector and choose Email. Use Move up and Move down in a card’s menu to reorder emails in a draft. Delete step removes an email. A sequence can have up to 50 steps, up to 20 emails on any one path, and up to 10 conditions. A step’s body can be up to 100 KB.

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Threading

Each email after the first has a thread setting:
  • Reply in same thread sends the email as a reply in the thread of the earlier email. It has no subject of its own: it keeps the subject of the email that started the thread, with “Re:” in front.
  • New thread starts a new conversation with its own subject.
Step 1 always starts a thread.

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Add a condition

A condition sends each contact down a Yes or a No path, depending on one of the contact’s fields. Select a + on a connector and choose Condition: “Split contacts into Yes and No by a contact field.”
  • Choose the field (a contact field such as Email, Company or Title, or one of your custom fields), the operator (is set, is not set, equals, does not equal, contains or does not contain) and, for the last four, a value of up to 200 characters.
  • The check ignores capitals, and an empty field counts as not set.
  • It is checked the moment a contact reaches the condition, right after the previous email. Nobody waits at a condition.
  • Each path has its own steps. Emails on a path are named along it, for example “Step 4 (Yes)”.
  • A sequence starts with an email, so a condition cannot come first. Conditions are added and removed while the sequence is a draft (“Conditions are added while the sequence is a draft.”). Deleting a condition that has steps under it asks whether to keep the Yes path, keep the No path or delete both paths.

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Sequence settings

On Settings: If the mailbox cannot detect replies and the sequence is already live (active or paused), turning on Stop when the contact replies asks you to confirm: “Follow-ups will not stop on replies.” In a draft, the launch dialog asks instead.

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Preview and send a test

Open Preview, select Choose a contact and pick a contact. DealToaster renders every step as that contact will get it, with your unsaved edits included. Nothing is sent. You can switch between HTML and Plain text.
  • A warning appears when a variable is empty for that contact, when the subject comes out empty, or when the email has more than 3 links.
  • With a condition, the preview shows only the path this contact takes, for example “Goes to Yes”.
  • The unsubscribe link in a preview does nothing.
Select Send test to me to receive a step in your own inbox. The test is sent from the sequence’s mailbox to your address, with [Test] at the start of the subject. A few rules apply:
  • The saved step is what goes out, so the button is off while the step has unsaved edits.
  • A test counts toward the mailbox’s daily limit and ignores the sending window.
  • A test creates no enrollment.
  • If your email uses {{random}}, the preview and the test may show a different variant than the real send.
  • You can send up to 10 tests an hour.